[German version] Stratovolcano (eruptions of ash and lava), dormant in ancient times, in Campania (for the ancient forms of the name with a list of all the literary and inscriptional documentation see [6. 33 f., 128-136], modern Vesuvio. The cone-shaped mountain, today 1281 m high, sits in a caldera (Monte Somma; highest peak: Punta del Nasone at 1132 m to the north of V.), which came into being, or was expanded, when the peak of the mountain was blown off during the AD 79 eruption. After a period…

[German version] [1] Artificially extended harbour complex near Ostia This item can be found on the following maps: Theatre An artificial harbour complex, created under the emperor Claudius (AD 41-54) to extend the harbour of Ostia (with plan) and enlarged under Trajan (AD 98-117),
c. 3 km northwest of Ostia. The Claudian harbour basin (
c. 80 hectares) was protected from the sea by a mole structure (but not actually safe; in AD 62 almost 200 ships went down in a storm: Tac. Ann. 15,18) and marked by a lighthouse (cf. plan: 1) (according to Suet. C…

[German version] Way from one region to another across or through a narrow place sketched out by nature (a saddle at a relatively low point of a watershed, water gap of a river flowing across a mountain chain, or between the sea and steeply rising mountains). The modern term 'pass', like the late mediaeval term
littera passus (‘document of passage’), derives from the Latin
passus, which in mediaeval Latin usage already had the meaning (among others) of ‘way through or across’. Locally other terms, frequently oriented towards the character of the landscape, …

[German version] City in Daunia (Str. 6,3,9: Σαλαπία/
Salapía; Plin. HN 3,103:
Salapia; It. Ant. 314,7; Tab. Peut. 6,3; Geogr. Rav. 5,1; Guido, Geographia 22). It was established twice; the first site was where remains are to be found on the road from Zapponeta to Torre Pietra, on the Ionios Kolpos northwest of the salterns of Margherita di Savoia on the Lago di Salpi (drained in the modern period). Despite various foundation myths (founded by Trojans, Lycoph. 1129; different account in Vitr. De arch. 1,4,12,
cf. Steph. Byz. s.v. Ἐλπία; Str. 14,2,10), it was most probably a pure…

[German version] Mountain range (up to 813 m) of volcanic origin between
mons Mefineis (modern Roccamonfina) and the Tyrrhenian Sea in the region of the Aurunci (Ausones) between Latium Adiectum and Campania (cf. Plin. HN 3,59f.), modern Monte Massico. Of great strategic importance (cf. Liv. 22,14; Sil. 7,261 up to 217 BC); the
via Appia ran first northwards over the saddle between the MM and
mons Mefineis, then after the foundation of the
colonia of Sinuessa (295 BC) on the narrow coastal strip, controlled from there, between the MM and the sea (details in [1. 215f.…

(Πτελεόν;
Pteleón). [German version] [1] Place at the northern end of the bay of Erythrae Fortified place at the northern end of the bay of Erythrae [2], not located with certainty (Plin. HN 5,117; Steph. Byz. s. v. Π.). As a member of the Delian League (ATL 1,390 f.; 486; 2,82) P. was at times formally independent, but in fact it was dependent on Erythrae. P. is mentioned by Thuc. (8,24,2; 8,31,2) in connexion with the naval war in the waters around Miletus [2] and Chios in the winter of 412/1 BC (Peloponnesian War). Olshausen, Eckart (Stuttgart) Sauer, Vera (Stuttgart) Bibliography J. Keil, P.…

[German version] The course of coastlines and the character of coastal landscapes are constantly being changed by the interplay of eustatic variations in sea level, tectonically caused instances of eruption and subsidence, deposits of sediment from rivers, alluvia from the sea, volcanoes and related bradyseism (e.g. in Puteoli), sea currents, wind, breakers and tides. Bearing this in mind can be important for evaluating particular historical events. Thus, for example, the coastal strip at Thermop…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Social Wars | Villa | Coloniae | Etrusci, Etruria | Pilgrimage Town in Campania, north east of the Vesuvius (Str. 5,4,8; It. Ant. 109,2; Tab. Peut. 6,4); it still bears the same name today. N. lies at the foot of the Appennines, on a broad plain approximately halfway from Capua to Nuceria, on a major traffic artery leading from Etruria to Poseidonia/Paestum, subsequently known as
via Popilia. We do not know what part the inhabitants of Chalcis [1] played in its foundation (Sil. Pun. 12,161; Just. Epit. 20,1,1…

[German version] (Προποντίς;
Propontís). A sea between the Pontos Euxeinos (Black Sea) in the northeast (Bosporus [1]) and the Aigaion Pelagos (Aegean) in the southwest (Hellespontus), between Thrace in the north and Mysia in the south, greatest length (from Callipolis to Nicomedia) 252 km, greatest breadth 74 km, modern Sea of Marmara. The P. was brought into existence by an early quaternary rift. The largest part of the area of the sea (
c. 11,500 km2) is formed by an area of land lowered 200 m, on which the islands perch (cf. the list of the islands in Plin. HN 5…

[German version] I. General points Climate is the sum of the weather phenomena occurring in a given region over longer periods of time. In combination with the nature of the soil, the water resources and other natural conditions it determines the possibility of human existence. Natural irregularities lead to differences in the energy radiation on to the earth's surface, the circulation of air masses and therefore the distribution of moisture. Changes affect in particular those areas on the limits of …

[German version]
S. is not, as Strabo's source (
cf. Str. 5,4,12) implies, a diminutive of
Sabini , but is derived from the same root as
Samnites , and from the time of Varro onwards is a term for them. For the modern linguistic use of
S., see Oscan-Umbrian. Olshausen, Eckart (Stuttgart) Sauer, Vera (Stuttgart) Bibliography E. T. Salmon, Samnium and the Samnites, 1967.

[German version] [1] Pylae Gadeirides The Straits of Gibralter (Πύλαι Γαδειρίδες;
Pýlai Gadeirídes). The Straits of Gibraltar; the sound (saddle depth 286 m), which is about 60 km long and at its narrowest point 13 km wide, lies between the southern tip of the Spanish Peninsula and the continent of Africa, and between the Mediterranean (Mare nostrum) in the east and Oceanus in the west. The ancient names for the straits are based on Gades (Plin. HN 3,3; 5; 74; 4,93:
Gaditanum fretum; Plut. Sertorius 8,1: Γαδειραῖος πορθμός/
Gadeiraîos porthmós), on the temple of Heracles in Gades ('…